The camera you see here just spent a year at the bottom of Deep Bay but is now home thanks to the efforts of a nature photographer and the power of social networks. Here's how he did it.

Photographer Markus Thompson recently came across the Canon EOS 1000D during a dive off the coast of Vancouver, BC. After extracting and cleaning the embedded SD card, he discovered that it was, surprisingly, still functional and also contained a number of vacation photos from August 2010—more than a year before he found it. From there, Thompson set about returning the camera to its rightful owner.

To do so, he posted the following to his Google+ account and waited for a reply:

Approximately 50 pictures on the card from a family vacation. If you know a fire fighter from British Columbia whose team won the Pacific Regional Firefit competition, has a lovely wife and (now) 2 year old daughter – let me know. I would love to get them their vacation photos :)

After just a few days, a friend of the owner contacted Thompson and the images and defunct camera were returned. The Internet—it's not just for stolen bikes anymore. [Markus Thompson via The Verge via PetaPixel - Image: Markus Thompson]